What was it like working with the land-based team and what were some of the considerations you made with them?

I reached out to the land-based team as soon as I was assigned the game and all of them were friendly and helpful. They understood that certain changes would have to be made to make their game fit into interactive and were fully supportive of that.

Briefly explain the process when making a game that comes from the land-based side of IGT.

All artwork, animation and maths have to be reviewed, in order to see what will translate well to the interactive market. Not just cosmetic issues like layout, but player profiles and behaviour; all of which can differ wildly between land-based and interactive gaming.

What is an interesting thing you learned about porting a game, while making Treasure Box Kingdom?

That file size isn’t such an important consideration for land based. We wanted to do the game’s visuals justice but had to keep the game at a player-friendly size. The balance we had to achieve between having the game as visually appealing as possible but still a relatively small file size, created some very interesting challenges and solutions.

What was your favourite part of the process?

I always enjoy finalising the layout. Having to be economical with the space available on interactive often enables us to streamline the game in ways that the land-based team might not have considered.

What is your favourite element of the game?

The Treasure Box symbol in the Hold and Respin bonus is extremely satisfying. Seeing the Coins all travelling into the Chest (leaving empty spaces for more wins)  before totalling up is perfectly timed and presented.

Where do you take inspiration from, when working on a game like this?

Inspiration has to primarily come from the original game. The most important element of any port is doing the original game justice. 

What challenges did you come up against as a team when working on Treasure Box Kingdom?

The maths proved to be extremely challenging and we had to redo the maths at a very late stage of production. It was less than ideal at the time, but the game was definitely improved by the edits made so it was worth it.

What is one fun fact about the game that nobody else would know? 

We spent the first half of production making the game with just Treasure Box as a title. It wasn’t until we realised we could easily follow the game with a port of Treasure Box Dynasty (the same game mechanic with different visuals) that we had to start calling it Treasure Box Kingdom.